Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Far East: China, Volume VIII
893.00B/3–3049
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 25.]
The Ambassador has the honor to transmit a copy of a memorandum prepared by Mr. Josiah W. Bennett, Director of the Nanking Branch of USIS,67 on the subject of Chinese Communist anti-American propaganda.
This carefully written and well-documented memorandum places the propaganda on two levels, the strategic and the tactical. On the much more important strategic level, the propaganda reflects and [Page 212] supports the views of International Communism, i.e., the Soviet Union. On the tactical level, it serves nicely to ridicule the National Government as an instrument of American “imperialism” and to divert attention from charges that the Chinese Communists are themselves instruments of Soviet foreign policy. The memorandum contends that the real motivation of the anti-American propaganda of the Chinese Communists stems not from the present civil war in China but rather from the global struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Memorandum by the Director of the Nanking Branch of the U.S.I.S. (Bennett) to the Acting Director of the U.S.I.S. in China (Conners)
Subject: The Nature of Chinese Communist Anti-American Propaganda
Chinese Communist propaganda against the United States, like Communist propaganda in other countries, may be said to operate on two levels, the strategic and the tactical.
Strategically, Communist propaganda reflects the world view of Communist leadership and is not a function of the situation in any particular country. This world view is embedded in Marxist theory and the various footnotes to this theory which have been authorized by Moscow. Being subscribed to by all party members, it necessarily governs the thinking of Communist propaganda organs. It may be regarded as a “basic directive” by which Communist propaganda policy, which is but one facet of over-all Communist policy, is guided.
The present Communist world view characterizes the United States as an international bogey man, enemy of all that is progressive and democratic. After the Second World War, which for the Western World was an imperialist war (only the USSR fought a patriotic war), the center of gravity of world capitalism moved to the United States. American “monopoly capital” assumed the role of a gigantic cabal, directing by unseen and insidious methods all capitalist enterprises the world over. Thus America, holding no colonies of its own, is represented as the world’s greatest colonial power, by virtue of the fact that it is assumed to have swallowed up the home governments of the colonial powers of Europe. Further, the evil spirit of Fascism (a word which Communist propaganda has sedulously sought to keep alive) is represented as having found home in the congenially “reactionary” atmosphere of Washington and Wall Street. Thus, as the world situation now stands, all that Communism finds most hateful and vile, is now concentrated in purest essence in the United States.
These imputations are naturally enraging to Americans, who have [Page 213] just concluded a bloody and costly war against Fascism and the policy of whose government is to work for the orderly liquidation of the colonial system throughout the world. But Communists regard them as “objective” truth—not verifiable truth, but truth as revealed by infallible theory. The United States must be fostering the revival of Fascist militarism in Germany and Japan, not because there is evidence to that effect but because the United States is a capitalist power and that is how a capitalist power must act. Likewise, in colonial areas, the United States must be the master mind behind all attempts to keep native peoples in bondage, because it is the world’s greatest capitalist power and that is the way a great capitalist power behaves. Communist theory has cast America in the role of evil genius of world reaction and would have her play out her part to the end.
The Chinese Communist Party apparently subscribes to this general view of the United States. American “imperialism” is constantly portrayed as successor to Japanese imperialism in China. The National Government of China is represented as a “semi-colonial” government of the United States. The United States is accused of deliberately fostering the revival of Japanese militarism. The Marshall Plan is condemned, and the Soviet Union applauded for its opposition thereto. But, more than this, Chinese Communist leaders have made explicit and detailed statements in which the Communist view of the United States is affirmed in detail. Early in November, when Chinese Communist armies were winning control of Manchuria, the Communist North Shensi Radio broadcast such a statement by Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party:
After the victory of the Second World War, American imperialism and its running dogs in various countries replaced Fascist Germany, Italy and Japan and are frenziedly preparing a new world war menacing the whole world. They reflect the extreme rottenness of the capitalist world and its panic in the face of impending extinction. This enemy still has its strength. Hence all revolutionary forces within every country must unite with each other. They must organize an anti-imperialist united front headed by the Soviet Union and pursue a correct policy. Otherwise, there can be no victory. (North Shensi Radio, November 7, 1948)
Here Mao declares the United States an enemy, not because of its policy in China, but because of its position as the world’s most powerful capitalist power. The United States is the enemy because its very existence as a free nation is the greatest obstacle in the path of Communist world revolution.
A similar statement by Liu Shao-ch’i, well-known Chinese Communist theoretician, was publicized by the North Shensi Radio at [Page 214] about the same time. In a long article on the world situation, Liu analyzes the position of the United States as follows:
On the other hand, a population of 1,300,000,000 among all the nations of the world (excluding the United States of America) is either directly or indirectly under the rule of a single America, while imperialist reactionaries of Great Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries have in reality become national traitors and accomplices of American imperialism. The United States of America has a population of only 140,000,000 and riding on their backs are only the eight well-known financial groups of Morgan, Rockefeller, Dupont, Mellon, etc., with a handful of representatives of their reactionary movements—only about 1,000 persons. (North Shensi Radio November 10, 1948)
By representing Great Britain, France and the Netherlands as captives of American imperialism, Liu completes the logical train which enables Communists to attack the United States as enemy of all movements of national liberation in Asia.
Like the whole of which it is a part, Chinese Communist propaganda is therefore forced by theoretical necessity to be profoundly anti-American. It is not within the power of the United States to escape this onus, except by the wholly unthinkable expedient of itself joining the Communist camp. So long as we choose to believe in and defend our democratic way of life, we shall continue to be the target of virulent propaganda from all true-believing Communist parties, including the Chinese.
The tactical employment of Communist strategic propaganda has greatly aided the Chinese Communist party in its struggle against the National Govt. By painting that government as a “semi-colonial” pawn of American “imperialism” Chinese Communist propagandists are enabled to represent their own war of rebellion as a great patriotic struggle against foreign “aggression.” By the same token this line has helped them divert attention from their own role as instruments of Soviet Russian policy in China. All available local color is utilized to reinforce the concept of Americans as “imperialists,” “aggressors”, “exploiters”, “reactionaries”, and “warmongers.” Every incident, every word is seized upon and twisted into an anti-American shape. Misdemeanors—real and fancied—of Americans in China become “atrocities.” Dealings of our diplomatic representatives with the Government of China become “conspiracies”, while treaties and agreements become “treaties of national betrayal.” American military advisers “participate” and “intervene” in China’s civil strife. American arms and “American trained and equipped” troops “slaughter” innocent Chinese. And so on.
Meanwhile the thesis that the National Government is but an American “stooge” is pushed both ad absurdum and ad nauseam. Chiang Kai-shek is accused of shipping phosphorus and salt to Japan [Page 215] “on MacArthur’s orders” (North Shensi Radio, November 13, 1948). Okamura68 was returned to Japan “at the orders of American imperialism”. (North Shensi Radio, February 5, 1949). Pai Chung-hsi and Fu Tso-i69 were promoted “on American instructions” (North Shensi Radio, November 1, 1948). Chiang Kai-shek’s retirement and Li Tsung-jen’s assumption of office was “at the prompting of the American Government” (North Shensi Radio, January 23, 1949). The peace movement of the Nationalist Government is “nothing but a huge fraud instigated by American imperialism.” (North Shensi Radio, January 31, 1949). In other words, whatever the Chinese Government may do, whether it wages war or sues for peace, it does at the behest of American “imperialism.”
The conclusion I think is clear. This anti-American propaganda on the tactical level was not dictated by the actual workings of American policy in China so much as by the propaganda strategy prescribed by the Communist canon for all loyal Communist parties. If American support of the Chinese Government had ceased abruptly on V–J Day, if a policy of the severest neutrality had been adopted at that time, Chinese Communist propaganda would in all likelihood still have been intensely anti-American. There would still be American machinations in Nanking to denounce. (That they bore no visible fruit would not be a serious hindrance). Events in Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia would have provided limitless stores of ammunition if material were not ready to hand in China itself. For Chinese Communism sees itself as part of the Communist world revolution. Whatever the particulars of the situation in a given country, the ultimate villain in the piece, from the Communist point of view, is always the United States, the only source of strength in the non-Communist world.
Should the Chinese Communists succeed in their struggle to replace the present Government of China, we can expect Communist anti-American propaganda to continue, with only the emphasis changed. Domestically, nonconformists and deviationists may well be accused of intrigue with American “imperialism”. American “imperialism”, which already has been accused of organizing “disruptive plots” to split the Communist Party (North Shensi Radio, February 4, 1949), will doubtless be credited with various nefarious schemes to debase the purity of the revolutionary movement. But the most important change will probably be an increased emphasis on events in other parts of Asia. Already Chinese Communist propaganda has begun to take a brotherly interest in the activities of other Asiatic countries and Asiatic Communist parties in Japan, Korea, French Indo-China, [Page 216] Malaya and Indonesia. With the battle of China effectively won, the Chinese Communist propaganda front will probably be extended to all such areas in the hope of eventually securing all of East Asia for the world revolution. Here too strategic considerations will mark the United States as the primary object of attack.